The Legend in the Song
by Valkyrei
Summary: A series of music-inspired one-shots focused mostly on Eliot and/or Parker, but with other character occasionally making an apperance. Requests are welcome.
1. You Are Not the End: Eliot

Okay, so I decided to start a series of Leverage drabbles - though, I have been informed, they are not technically drabbles seeing as they are all most likely going to be more than 100 words, but they are not fics and I guess that the best way to describe them would be as a series of one-shots.

Things to be aware of:

1. They will mostly be Eliot/Parker centric  
2. I just put my iPod on shuffle and went to town  
3. There may be some OOCness. I apologize. I am not Sophie or Nate and am therefore unable to completely immerse myself in the characters' heads.

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Leverage, or else Eliot would totally be MY gym teacher. This is totally a work of fiction from the frightening landscape of my mind, any relation it may have to a real person/place/event/any other recognizable quality is purely coincidence.

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**You Are Not The End - Pillar**

_You can try to break me down and then  
__Like a phoenix I will rise again  
I always do  
I always do_

I won't let you win  
You are not the end of me  
(You are not the end)  
I won't let you win  
I won't let you bring me to my knees

Eliot doesn't remember falling asleep on the plane. Doesn't remember the nightmare. Doesn't remember jumping to his feet over California and grabbing the steward who tried to slip the tablet of botulinum into his coffee. Doesn't remember beating the man into unconsciousness. Doesn't remember doesn't remember _can't_ remember can't _remember_.

What he does remember is the way his heart seemed to stop when the knife was thrust at Parker's back. He does remember grabbing the mug of steaming coffee and flinging it onto the man. Does remember grabbing the knife and hurling it into the chest of another man. Does remember finding and _breakhurtkilling _everyone he laid his eyes on in that God forsaken plane. But he knows most of the blood on his clothes is not his.

He doesn't know how he ended up next to the airlock, a parachute strapped to his shoulders and Parker buckled to his chest, and what was he doing up here anyway? He hated jumping out of planes. Half the time he jumped something would go wrong: cross winds, tangled steering cords, trees... trees with thorns especially… big thorns… He'd probably land in a cactus patch, and he doesn't know how he ended up free-falling from 20,000 feet, Parker's shriek of joy rushing past his ears.

By some miracle his com was still in his ear, though he couldn't make heads or tails of what Nate and Hardison and Sophie were screaming at him, and Parker kept spinning them updownsidewaysbackwards laughing happily and the ground spun like a top and he was swearing "Oh shit oh shit oh shit" and yanked the cord but they were coming in too fast and they were going to crash then they dropped past a hundred feet... ninety... eighty... he panted, just another second... only a few more... he didn't want to die... not this way... not falling from a plane... he'd survived everything... survived death so many times... he was going to go out fighting because he fought everything, but even Eliot Spencer couldn't fight gravity and physics... the ground was right there...

At the last second he twisted onto his back and cradled Parker, then hit and tumbled, sand exploding upwards, automatically his muscles jerked and he rolled and bounced upwards, flying end over end and hitting again before skipping back up into the air as he left the edge of a low dune... he barrel-rolled too quickly to focus on anything, dizzy and disoriented. Then he smashed into the ground, rolling and tumbling, skipping like a stone over smooth water, trying to keep his limbs curled in around Parker enough to form himself into a ball to roll and not give resistance to the ground and keep her safe all at the same time. His shoulder hit a boulder and he felt the breath leave his body, felt the sharp pain as he plowed through a cactus patch.

Finally he rolled to stop, flopping the last few times like a rag doll. He lay there on the burning hot sand staring upwards into the blue sky dotted with clouds. Parker giggled quietly for a moment, then burst out into full-blown, insane laughter. Eliot growled and unbuckled the harness, and Parker slid off him.

"That was awesome!" she exclaimed happily, but Eliot tried to sit up, felt the pain in his broken maybe cracked ribs, acknowledged it, and pushed himself to his feet, holding out a hand for Parker.

"Damn it," he cursed again, and wiggled his fingers and toes to make sure they were all still attatched. "C'mon, Parker, we gotta get movin', darlin'," he said, cracking his neck. "The cops'll be here soon, and trust me, we don't want to be here when they start askin' why there was an unauthorized jump from a civilian plane over U.S. soil."

_Did that man seriously just kill six assassins, jump out of an airplane, crash-land in the desert, and get back up and start walking again? _Hardison demanded.

_He's Eliot Spencer, _Sophie said. _He takes the punishment, gets knocked down, and gets right back up again. It's what he does._


	2. I'm So Sick: Parker

**I'm So Sick - Flyleaf**

_I'm so sick,  
Infected with where I live  
Let me live without this  
Empty bliss,  
Selfishness  
I'm so sick  
I'm so sick_

If you want more of this  
We can push out, sell out, die out  
So you'll shut up  
And stay sleeping  
With my screaming in your itching ears

Parker was not crazy. Everyone thought that she was crazy and maybe they were just a little bit right but Parker was not crazy.

"_She's twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag," _Eliot had said the first night they met. Well, maybe that was true and even though Parker never technically finished high school she knew that that was a mathematical impossibility and that she was not a bag and it was probably just one of those wacky Southern sayings that Eliot used because that's where Eliot was from, not the sayings, the South. Eliot was from the South, where it was hot and there were horses that weren't really murderous and small towns and fights and Eliot getting hurt and Aimee hurting him in a way that Parker didn't know how to fix even though Eliot was teaching her first-aid and Parker decided that she didn't really like the South.

"_Hey, what have you got going on… you and Hardison? What is it, like some sort of creepy contest?"_ Eliot was funny. He didn't know it, but Parker watched him, just waiting for when he would say something funny to make her laugh even when he didn't know that he did it, but he always did. So yeah, she tried sometimes to return the favor but apparently she wasn't very good at being funny the normal way so she just had to go with being herself because that made Eliot laugh sometimes and he had such a nice laugh when his ribs weren't broken or his lip wasn't split or his face wasn't swollen and bruised that Parker had actually started to try to find ways to help him avoid fights just so his laugh wouldn't be stolen from him and taken to a place where she couldn't steal it back for him by putting Hardison in a perfect triangle choke.

"_There's something wrong with you," _Both Eliot and Sophie had said, but Parker already knew that she was a kleptomaniac, and she like money, not shoes, and all she really needed was Bunny and for the money that she earned to be in her accounts and everything would be okay, not revenge or having a dead man named Jimmy Who or whoever locked in Nate's closet.

Sometimes, she would admit to herself, she would want to be normal. Like when she had jury duty or had to grift or meet a client with Nate, then she wanted to be normal. Sometimes she didn't want the first thing that people thought of when they saw Parker was insanity.

But at times like now, when she was standing on the edge of a twenty-story building waiting to test her new rig, she loved the insanity. Besides, she told herself, insanity is only a handicap if you let it be. Some of the best moments of her life had been brought about by her insanity - killing her parents, repelling with Hardison for his first time, blowing up a shipping container with C4, stealing the statue of Santa Clause, robbing a bank that was being robbed, stabbing that creepy Dracula wannabe with a fork, all of that had been some of the funest things she had ever done, and they had all been because she was "insane."

Really, Parker couldn't see the downside of being "sick."


	3. Lion: Parker

**Lion - Rebecca St. James**

_I am speechless  
But in my weakness  
You are here and all is well  
With You with me,  
facing tomorrow together I can learn to fly  
Feels like I'm living in a lion's mouth,  
but the lion is an angel_

Parker glanced across the room to where Eliot lay sprawled on the couch. The left side of his face was swollen like a lumpy plumb pie and all that she could think of was the sickening, meaty thud that his head had made when it bounced off of the wall and it was all her fault and if she hadn't gotten distracted by the marks security system he wouldn't be lying there and he was just so still -

"Parker, darlin' quit lookin' so worried. You'll wrinkle. I'm fine, I promise."

But Parker wasn't stupid. She might be crazy, but she wasn't stupid, and she'd been having to patch herself up after jobs gone wrong long enough to recognize the signs of a concussion, and she had been with Eliot and the team long enough and been through enough jobs-gone-to-hell that ended up with Eliot having to "take the punishment" as he put it, because it was his job, to be all to familiar with the way his brow furrowed and the crinkles around his eyes and the hard lines of his face got harder whenever her was in pain and now the lines were etched out harder than she had ever seen them and it was _all her fault _and she'd never had a family before and she'd never let her family down before and she just knows that they are going to hate her for what she did and she knew they would leaver her again and she was right again and she'd never had a real family before.

Parker had never had a family before. Well, not a real family, not a family that she loved and cherished and would steal for or even steal back from death - he couldn't take them. She was Parker, the world's greatest thief! She could steal anything from the Gem of Gibraltar to the Hope Diamond to the lives of her friends, and senseless death, death who was grey and had a long crooked sickle and was no match for Parker's skills, would have no idea she had stolen them back until her friends were already back safe and sound and healthy and whole and Eliot would be cooking for them again and Hardison would be watching reruns of old stories about other planets on the T.V. and Nate would be researching for clients and Sophie would be shopping and it would all be okay again because the would have their hitter again and he would keep them safe because he was so like the lion that had given him the scar on his lip.

But Parker tried not to let herself worry too much because she knew that Eliot Spencer was indestructible and if Eliot Spencer decided to go over the Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel, he could do it because Eliot Spencer could do anything. Parker had done it, but that was because she was trying to escape from Canada with a barrel full of precious jewels and that had been the only way, but Eliot could do it because Parker knew that everyone knew that you _never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly_ and Eliot Spencer had the fastest guardian angel ever - even faster that her own, and she jumped off buildings because she liked to and carried C4 around in her bag and thought up how to break into banks instead of doing crossword puzzles and stabbed people with forks and shot them with stun guns.

Yes, Parker thought as Sophie woke Eliot to check for signs of a coma, her guardian angel was very fast, but Eliot Spencer's guardian angel was the fastest ever.


	4. Addicted: Parker

**Addicted - Kelly Clarkson**

_I'm hooked on you  
__I need a fix  
I can't take it  
Just one more hit  
I promise I can deal with it  
I'll handle it, quit it  
Just one more time  
Then that's it  
Just a little bit more to get me through this_

Parker was addicted to adrenaline. She lived for those few moments of freefall, for when the adrenaline would rush through her veins and make her alive again and the fear of falling and the scolding voices of NateSophieHardisonEliot faded to static and only made the moments sweeter, that much more taboo.

That rush of adrenaline never let her down. The wind whipping past her never failed to excite her. The sight of the ground rushing towards her at speeds faster than a thought never failed to make her dizzy in the most wonderful way. And the fear of falling, the fear of hitting the ground and splattering into dozens of tiny little Parker bits that wouldn't fit into a five pound bag like the ones Eliot kept comparing her to never came until the harness jerked her to a stop because the freefalladrenalinewindground never let her down, were always constant unchanging but her harness could snap the cogs and gears could rust the rope could moldsnap send her falling falling falling and only the unchanging ground would stop her and take away the rush of her ultimate freefall.

But Parker knew that she had to face her fears. She always faced her fears because if you didn't face your fears then your fears were stronger than you and if something was stronger than you then it could kill you and even though Parker was somewhat crazy she didn't want to die because no one really wanted to die except maybe Nate but that was before he had the team but before that he had lost everything but Parker was Parker not Nate and Parker didn't want to die so she faced her fears.

When she was eight and scared of dark, enclosed spaces her friends buried her in a coffin for two days and now her whole job revolved around the darkness because the dark was her friend now and hid her from the people who were not her friends and wanted to ruin her fun by trying to catch her but that was a whole nother game and Parker liked games - they were a different kind of adrenaline rush that didn't feel as good as falling because this one was tinged with fear that she swallowed and it stayed in her stomach not like the butterflies that Eliot gave her but like worms and maggots like dead bodies corpses spiders and those things she didn't like and she didn't like this fear but the dark was her friend and it took away some of that fear.

When she was fifteen her first line broke and she fell down down down down and _splat!_ on the sidewalk her bone was so white next to all of the red and it was so pretty and the blood was ruby red red like that jewels she was trying to steal and it was so so pretty but she couldn't stay and that was the first time she found she was afraid of truly falling so after she got out of the hospital - she was afraid of hospitals too so she stayed for a week hiding in the air ducts but she still didn't like hospitals hospitals took Nate's Sam and his Maggie and instead gave him alcohol - she went on her first skydiving trip and then she was hooked.

Hospitals gave Nate alcohol and computers gave Hardison numbers and gummy frogs and orange soda and fighting gave Eliot control and release and grifting gave Sophie shoes and art so Parker guesses that everyone has their own addictions and maybe hers isn't that bad after all because all of these things are her families lives and jumping makes Parker feel alive so maybe they're all just addicted to life but if they weren't addicted to these things then they wouldn't be addicted to life if they weren't addicted to life then what would be the point of helping people get their lives back and everyone had their own addictions - Parker's was just freefalling from 10,000 feet.


	5. Ah Mary: Sophie

Author's Note: Sorry if this chapter somewhat sucks - I'm not too good with Sophie or Nate, and right now I'm really in the habit of writing Parker-style rambles, so Soph is probably OOC, and I apologize.

Disclaimer: I do not own Leverage (If I did, Lucille would still be with us. "I always have been and forever will be your friend.")

**Ah Mary - Grace Potter and the Nocturnes **

_She's skilled at the art of deception and she knows it  
She's got dirty money that she plays with all the time_

_She'll take you so high up and cover her eyes as you fall down  
Then in the morning don't be surprised if you're dead_

Sophie was a grifter. _Sophie_ was a grifter. Katherine was an accountant, Anna was a business representative from _Africa_, Lily worked for Executive Orders, Catherine-Beth worked with horses, and God only knows that Sophie would never work with horses because it would ruin her shoes, but that wasn't who Sophie really was.

Sophie didn't know who she was anymore there were so many aliases. Sometimes the line between _alias_ and _reality_ was blurred and she would have to catch herself because she didn't really speak in a Nigerian accent.

That was one of the few things about her that really was true - she was British. 100%, God-save-the-Queen, bloody-wanker-calling, Rugby-loving, Earling Studios-worshiping, red-white-and-blue-the-way-they-were-supposed-to-be Brit.

She'd stolen her first painting from London, and that was still one of her favorite places to go.

She knew everything about every one of her aliases. She knew what they got on their eighth grade report cards, when they'd gotten their first kiss, been in their first accident, all of it, because it made the character she was trying to play more real.

Too real, sometimes.

But she knew that it was Sophie who had fallen in love with Nate, and she was worried that if she got rid of Sophie, all of her feelings for Nate might not be there in the end, and loving Nate was something constant in her life. Hardison would pull off a seemingly impossible hack, Parker would do something crazy, Eliot would beat the crap out of someone, and Nate would make her fall more in love with him no matter what he did.

She wasn't sure that she wanted to let one of her few small pieces of consistency go just yet.


	6. Poison Kiss: Nate

**A/N:** You had all better appreciate this update because I'm sick and this was a _pain_ in the _ass_ to write. If you need a visual to show just how sick I was, here it is - I threw up 3 times, have a fever of 102, stuffy nose, sore throat, muscle aches, headache, and am currently trying not to hack up a lung.

**Get this:** I had a scheduled drive for drivers ed, and the instructor took one look at me and told me to go into the school and call my parents because he wasn't going to spend two hours in a car with Typhoid Mary.

Moving on - I don't do Nate very well, but I did my best.

**Disclaimer: **I used to own Leverage characters/plot, but I lost it to Devlin in a card game. (He plays a mean game of go fish.)

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**Poison Kiss - The Last Goodbye**

_Your eyes don't lie  
They give you away  
You say, you say  
__Everything is different today  
__Your footsteps fall, all over the place  
You're up, you're down  
A butterfly caught in the cage_

Sophie was an excellent grifter, this Nate knew. If she wasn't the best, she was one of them. "Villains, con men, wolves in sheep's clothing. Felt right at home," she'd said.

Nate had no doubt that she was telling the absolute truth. That was the world of Sophie Devereaux, and she was it's best actress on the stage of deceit.

But that wasn't who he loved. Sure, he was attracted to her (he wasn't gay, and any red-blooded male with eyes would be attracted to her caramel skin and long legs) but he didn't love her, with her poison kisses and lies that consumed every part of her.

Sometimes Nate almost lost hope for the girl he sometimes saw lurking behind all of her masks. She wasn't nearly as calm and cool and confident as she acted, he could see in her dark eyes. Sophie could lie her way out of any situation, a new character always waiting in the wings to be used as a tool to get what she wanted, but the woman that Nate loved could never lie to him.

Whenever Nate saw the vulnerable look in Sophie's eyes, he knew that _his_ grifter was there, and it was in those moments that he loved her the most and the hope that had been fading flared up again, more brilliantly than ever.

When she told him that she needed her space, he was torn between being sad that she was gone and angry that she had left him and hopeful because he was hoping that maybe she would come back to him the woman that he loved and that she would have buried "the rest of them so that only she was left."

But then she showed up and Nate was shot and all he could think of as he saw that helicopter containing his family lifting off was that the vulnerable look in her eyes hadn't been there, but that she hadn't used the voice that she used on a mark.

Her eyes had changed, and they told him that after this, nothing would ever be the same again.


	7. Boys With Girlfriends: Alec

**Boys With Girlfriends - Mieko**

_When I first met you I knew you were the one  
__'Til you took me home and I met her  
__She had your boxers on  
__She was listening to your song  
__And I thought right then that you had everything  
__But I knew she was jealous from the start  
__Yeah I knew she was jealous from the start  
__'Cause I know better not to be friends with boys with girlfriends_

The second he saw Eliot checking out Parker when she was changing in that elevator, Alec knew that he was screwed. Eliot, with his stupid Southern accent and his stupid big muscles and long pretty hair would just say something funny and Parker would totally forget about the geeky hacker.

But she didn't, and Alec wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She'd kissed him twice and pretended that she was meeting him to have sex for a con, but it seemed to mean something different to her than it meant to him.

Maybe that was the problem. Maybe he was fishing and finding things that weren't really there because he wanted to see them and because he could manipulate the cyber world so easily but his best efforts couldn't even scratch the surface of the world that was Parker. His world was one's and zero's, black and white and glowing monitors, but Parker's world was grey and blue and gold and all the colors of the rainbow swirled together by some dead art guy like that guy who cut off his own ear or someone to blend it into a sexy little thing like Parker.

But like all of those famous paintings, Parker was under a glass case - on display for viewing and admiring and maybe even wanting, and you could take as many pictures or store up as many memories as you wanted, but you couldn't touch or museum security would be on your black ass faster than he could hack the government's No-Fly List.

Under no circumstance, Alec had learned, were you to touch Eliot Spencer's girl, even if she didn't know that she belonged to him yet.

And then just as he would think that he should just give up, abandon this whole stupid "White Knight" crap once and for all, Parker would come bounding up to him with a new video game - one that wasn't supposed to be released for another two months, one that Alec would give up his own arm to have - and ask him with a big smile and shining eyes if he could "please, please, pretty pretty please" teach her how to play, and he would tell himself, "Just one more. One more, and you're out."

But really, Alec decided as Parker bounced up to him, a pre-release copy of _Deus Ex: Human Revolution _in her hands, maybe just being friends was better than being nothing at all.


	8. Collapsing: Eliot

**Collapsing - Demon Hunter**

_I, I see the weight of hollow death residing in you  
Take now your final breath  
Exhale the truth  
I see the fear of nothing left  
Dead fragments of youth  
You hold it in yourself  
I feel it too_

_I mourn your blindness  
I die alone  
And swallow darkness  
In misery is where I belong_

Staring at her motionless body, Eliot realized that he had never seen Parker sleep before. Admittedly, the team had never seen him sleep before, but that was different. He only slept 90 minutes a day, and sometimes not even that. He wondered if someday he would just stop sleeping entirely.

But he didn't sleep because the last time he had fallen asleep on a plane, both him and Parker had ended up parachuting from a perfectly good airplane into the middle of Death Valley. In the end, though, that had ended up alright because the only people who died were the people who deserved to die.

Sometime it didn't work out like that. Sometimes he woke up covered in blood that wasn't his and all he could do was watch the news or listen to the radio and wait fearfully for the report of the latest massacre. As much as he hated to admit it, Rucker had been right when he said that Eliot fought like something was trying to get out of him, because it was. He could feel it, festering inside of him like a dark storm, trying to claw its way to the surface for another night of fun.

When he first joined the team, if it got to be so bad that he was afraid he would loose control and lash out at one of his new teammates, he would leave for a couple of days until he was back in control, but lately, Parker had caught on and wouldn't let him leave without her.

She didn't understand what he might do to her when he was like this. Didn't understand just how much of a badass, out of control psychopath he could be sometimes.

But whenever Parker was around him, he wasn't. There was something about the way she looked up at him with those large blue eyes, seemingly to big for her small face, that just made something inside of him ache. There was a dark shadow across those eyes, eyes that had seen death and lost their innocence at an age much too young and were now trying to reclaim what had been lost.

Parker rarely opened up to any of the team about her past, but when she did, Eliot listened. When she identified Luca as an orphan and skipped out on the rest of the team to go back to the orphanage to rescue the others, he knew that what she went through growing up in the system must have been bad.

He understood that. He knew what it felt like to feel so worthless and dirty and violated and empty that it seemed like he deserved to live in misery and the only thing to do was to give in and let everything suffocate you.

But he didn't, because ever since he had been born he had been a fighter and that had been his salvation - controlling the violence in himself. As Eliot looked down at Parker's sleeping figure and brushed a strand of soft blonde hair from her face, he wondered what she had found to keep it from suffocating her.


	9. What Do We Know: Parker

**What Do We Know? - Thousand Foot Krutch**

_It's a twist, a little bit, I'll admit,_  
_But we're stronger than before,  
__Open up, we've had enough, we've had enough,  
Now we're holdin' __on and waiting_

_What do we know?_  
_What do we know?_  
_What do we know?_  
_What do we know?_  
_What do we know?_  
_What do we know?_  
_I'll tell you what they're all sayin'_

_We all try to be somebody  
__But the world around us makes it so cloudy  
When we don't trust __where we're supposed to  
__But the blood on their hands says we're not close to the answer yet_

What do we know about Parker?

We know that she has blonde hair. We know that she has blue eyes. We know that she is five feet seven inches tall. We know that she weighs one hundred and fifteen pounds. We know that she specializes in infeltration and alter and security circumvention.

But what do we _know_ about Parker?

We know that she is one of the best thieves in the world. We know that she has stolen the Gem of Gibraltar and the Polish Star. We know that she is wanted in nine countries, including Yemen and Brazil. We know that she can hold her own in a fight. We know that she can scale walls, rappel from skyscrapers, and shimmy into the tightest places and remain unruffled.

But what do we _know_ about Parker?

We know that she can't speak Siberian, but she can speak Spanish. We know that "I don't like stuff. I like money!" We know that she doesn't really understand the concept of modesty. We know that she has kleptomania. We know that she used to be afraid of dark, inclosed spaces until she spent two days buried alive in a coffin. We know that "Some people do crosswords..." but Parker figures out ways to pull off near-impossible heists.

But what do we _know_ about Parker?

We know that she didn't go to highschool. We know that she lost her brother Nick to a car accident as a child. We know that she was the one who taught him how to ride that bike. We know that she has been fostered in both Kansas City and Camden, Illinois. We know that she loves her Bunny. We know that she can't tell white lies, even to make someone feel better. We know that she aspires to pick a lock in less than six seconds. We know that "I don't do drugs." We know that her only "drug" is adrenaline. We know that her only insecurity is about her ability to "be normal."

But what do we _know_ about Parker?

We know that sleeping _is_ a hobby, no matter what Nate says. We know that if you touch her, much finger-breaking and stabbing-with-a-fork will ensue. We know that she is an orphan. We know that she keeps her essentials light and portable. We know that she loves her new family more than any foster family she has ever had. We know that "We're a little more than a team..." We know that she has a touch of Asperger's Syndrome. We know that "Fact is, death haunts us every day, no matter where we are." We know that "Sometimes bad guys are the only good guys you get." We know that "People are like locks. You have to be paitent and if they don't go right away you have to be fiddly and just go until you hear the..." [Click]

But what do we _know_ about Parker?

We know that she is a thief with something wrong with her who makes stealing look good. _Real_ good.


	10. Undisclosed Desires: ParkerEliot

**Undisclosed Desires - Muse**

_I know you suffered  
But I don't want you to hide  
It's cold and loveless  
I won't let you be denied_

_I want to reconcile the violence in your heart  
I want to recognize your beauty is not just a mask  
I want to exorcise the demons from your past  
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart_

Parker knew better than anyone that the past could destroy you if you weren't careful because Parker's past had destroyed the girl that used to be Parker but really she wasn't Parker because Parker wasn't her and that girl was so much more _smallersadderweaker_ than the new Parker.

Before she met the team the old Parker and the new Parker were trying to stab one another in her sleep and that made her uncomfortable in her own skin because it wasn't just her in her skin she was sharing it with the new Parker and the old Parker but the _now_Parker was stuck in the middle and couldn't do anything without one of the other Parkers showing up and telling her _stealing is wrong _or_ he's going to find out _or_ you're a bad girl and what happens to bad girls? _or_ you want that? take it it's yours _or_ he can't tell you what to do - this is our life _or_wouldn't it be fun if we just fell? the rope snapping wind tugging our hair all the glorious seconds of free fall before you would smash into the hardcruelevil ground and go be with Nick because isn't that where you belong?_

But even though she tried really really hard she couldn't stop being the old Parker who still ate fortune cookies and was afraid of men and slept in a closet with Bunny - that was old Parker who she couldn't stop being anymore than she could stop being the new Parker who jumped off buildings and stabbed people with forks and broke fingers and stole and lied and kicked ass and loved her new family and Eliot - that was the new Parker.

But after she met the team the two Parker's had reconciled somewhat. She didn't make herself throw up after eating the cookies anymore or burn herself with cigarettes after she lied or stole or hurt someone - she accepted that she was who she was and neither Parker was bad and now she was comfortable with at least one aspect of her life.

She was comfortable with Eliot. Eliot was like jumping off a four story building because four story buildings were safe and familiar and damn hadn't she been jumping from them her whole life and she was still alive and safe. That was Eliot except that she hadn't been doing Eliot for her whole life because that would be weird but she had known him for _two years six months nine days eighteen hours thirty six minutes _but that was a really long time for her to know someone before she blew them up or dropped them off of a building so Eliot was really somewhat of a personal record for her and she was as certain as she had ever been about anything that wasn't stealing that it was because she didn't like to loose things that made her feel safe and nothing made her fell safe quite like Eliot.

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She was crazy. Absolutely, one-hundred percent completely bat-shit insane, of that Eliot was sure. Anyone who slept upside down because they thought it was "cozy" had to be bonkers.

Not, of course, that Eliot was saying he was afraid of heights, because he wasn't. There wasn't much that scared the Retrieval Specialist these days, not much that got his blood pumping and his adrenaline spiking through the roof, but seeing Parker swan dive off of the Willis Tower with only a simple harness was without a doubt at the top of the list.

Eliot wasn't stupid, he knew that being in the system and bouncing around from one foster home to another had really messed her up, but sometimes he swore that she did it just because she like to hear him tell her _"There's something wrong with you." _In his opinion, that only proved him that much more right, but that didn't mean that he didn't like it, or that he wanted her to stop being who she was. He liked his women to be a little... wild.

And he knew what it was like to grow up in a dysfunctional home - not that that made him sentimental, or anything. He was a man of many interests and he couldn't protect the team if he was moping about his past. He couldn't change the past. He couldn't change how some people acted or what people did to him, and if he was pissed at the world, well, it was okay for a hitter to be angry. No one questioned it, because it made him better at what he did if he hated whomever he was fighting because who he was fighting was an embodiment of the world that had screwed him over.

Well, maybe not everyone, but at least it was something tangible that he could beat on.

But then again, Eliot only used violence as an appropriate response.

Revenge was an appropriate response. To want to punish someone for hurting someone you cared for - that fake physic who made Parker cry - was perfectly normal. Once, when Hardison was having a post-con-gone-well all-nighter, they had watched The Punisher, and Eliot decided that Frank Castle said it best and generally just summed up Eliot's whole career - "In certain extreme situations, the law is inadequate. In order to shame its inadequacy, it is necessary to act outside the law. To pursue... natural justice. This is not vengeance. Revenge is not a valid motive, it's an emotional response. No, not vengeance. Punishment."

No one was innocent - everyone was guilty of a crime, whether they just sat back and ignored the bruises on a child's face simply because they would rather not get involved or if a man thought that his son needed a "firm hand." Everyone was guilty of something that deserved punishment.

Eliot got his revenge on those who had hurt him, but now that he was a part of a team, it was different. Every scar on Parker's body, Nate's mind, Sophie's heart, Alec's spirit, was a direct insult to his abilities to keep the team safe, and in the criminal world, those who went after the family of a mark were either desperate, insane, or thought they had enough money and manpower to get away with it.

Eliot's team was his new family, and those who hurt his family were punished. Eliot was going to punish the whole God-damned world.


	11. Night Terror: Parker

**A/N:** Well, I'm sick again. Great. Just as I was getting over my last cold. Maybe it's because I stayed up until 3 A.M watching... Eclipse, which was amazing, by the way. I went to the midnight premire and also the showings of Twilight and New Moon, so I was at the theater for over seven hours. Plenty of time for me to be exposed to all sorts of nasty bugs.

But, anyways, it's a cold on top of my alergies, so I'm pretty much confined to bed rest. Good news for all of you, except yesterday I decided to write outside. Did I mention that I only had three hours of sleep because I had to be up at seven to be at my last drivers ed class? Well I did, so it wasn't that surprising that I fell asleep. What was surprising was that it was, for once, sunny outside.

Sunburns suck.

Anyway, now that I have been re-confined to bed with a bottle of Aloe Vera, kleenex, and lots of Gatorade, there should be quite a few updates.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters from Leverage. They're just... on lease to me for now. I'll try to get them all back to Chris Downey and Dean Devlin in one piece.

* * *

**Night Terror – Laura Marling **

_I woke up and he was screaming  
I'd left him dreaming  
I roll over and shake him tightly  
And whisper "If they want you  
Oh they're gonna have to fight me"  
Oh fight me_

_If I look back and he's screaming_  
_I'd left him dreaming, the dangers fade_  
_And I roll back and shake him tightly_  
_And scream "If they want him_  
_Oh they're gonna have to fight me"  
Oh fight me_

Parker'd never seen Eliot sleep because he was her hitter who never slept because if he slept then he wouldn't be protecting them and if Eliot didn't protect them Alec's hands would be broken and Nate would be shot and someone would steal Sophie's shoes and Sophie had a truly impressive amount of shoes that Parker could steal as long as she brought both of them back together. The only time Parker had ever actually seen Eliot sleep she hadn't actually seen him sleep – Parker thought he wasn't really asleep even though he was really asleep because Eliot was a grifter too and he could pretend and put on his faces just like Sophie and Nate could.

Parker didn't have masks. She was who she was she liked that because if Parker didn't know who she was then who would know because Parker was the only one who knew and no one knew the real Parker as well as they thought they did because certain parts of Parker were always changing like her passwords changed because if she didn't change then someone would eventually be fiddly and patient enough to crack her code and the only way to stay alive was to stay always _growingmovingchanging_ so someone like Hardison couldn't get what he wanted.

Alec didn't have masks either. Hardison had his orange sugar and his edible amphibians and fire pockets and motherboards and hard drives and firewalls but he didn't have masks because he knew who he was just like Parker knew who she was and knew that she was not Shelia or Alec because that would be stupid to believe because she was Parker not someone's skanky girlfriend or an overly-compassionate foreign exchange student who liked sleeping even though Parker really did like to sleep as long as she was upside down or had Bunny but she was not from Pittsburgh Detroit Atlanta.

Parker didn't have masks like Sophie and Nate, and that was why it was so obvious that she was worried right now. If Eliot jumped out of a plane because he was sleeping that was okay as long as she was with him to make sure he didn't mess up because everyone knew that Parker's thing was ropes and harnesses and she kept them neat and organized and "surreal" and everyone knew that every time Eliot jumped off of something high something went wrong but not with Parker because she was the best but Eliot wasn't on a plane now he was at his house one the second floor and it was a nice house with lots of wood and security and booby traps and locks but being there was bad because he had no harness and Parker always used a harness if it was over three stories and Eliot's home was four stories.

Parker knew that Eliot knew how to fall but not from sixty-five plus feet up like Parker did because if Parker was the changeable like Wind Eliot was strong and constant like Earth and Nate was the warm and light like Sun and Sophie was beautiful and sparkling like Fire and Hardison was flowing and steady as Water.

She wasn't spying, really, not this time she was really there to check on him because the job had been hard and Eliot saw someone he knew someone who scared him and no one noticed but her and it was an accident and there were _nothappyscared_ noises coming from Eliot's room – noises that were all too familiar to her because she still made them sometimes and all she wanted was to jump off something really really really high and feel the _bloodadrenalinelife_ running through her veins again to banish the memories but once she was on the roof she was alright.

But Eliot wasn't on the roof so she turned from the window abruptly and tip-toed quiet-as-a-mouse into his pitch-black room and half-shuffled over to perch on his bed like a cat because she liked cats – so graceful beautiful free _alive _Parker was like a cat because she could see good in the darkness – she could just see his rare this-is-really-scaring-me face that Parker never really saw unless he was in an air duct (he barely fit into even the largest ones all his stupid hitter muscles and broad shoulders and boots got in the way and he almost got stuck) or if she jumped off a building and that made Parker hate that face because Parker hated Fear and his _brows scrunched together eyes flickering quickly back-and-forth beneath closed lids uncontrolled thrashing mumbling pale _look made Parker feel like the time when she had eaten a dish of cicada's and scorpions when she was in Beijing to steal one of Zhang Chongren's paintings.

"Please… Sorry… No… Please… _Please…_" she used to say that and in her sleep she still said it and each word was like a rusty pipe stabbing her through her heart because Eliot shouldn't know what it's like shouldn't be scared shouldn't have night terrors like Parker so carefully she reached out barely brushing his arm as gentle as the time she had stolen Pablo Picasso's _Garçon A La Pipe_, trying to wake him.

But he flinched away and another piece of Parker's heart cracked off and fell into her special "Angry-Place" as he half-curled beneath the tangled sheets his breaths coming closer together.

"Eliot," Parker hissed but he kept sleeping and what if she couldn't wake him up should she throw water on him but no he was a hitter he would panic and maybe think he was being tortured in a prison in Pakistan and Parker didn't like to scare Eliot unless she was free-falling. "Eliot." Louder this time, should she call Nate? Sophie? Hardison was his friend he would help but what could they do Eliot wasn't hearing her and what would she do if he didn't hear her? Parker snatched for his arm like it was trying to run away because Eliot wouldn't _dare_ try to run away from her because Parker was a Specialist herself and she could find anyone anywhere she could steal from Death and Eliot would not be taken by Fear. "Eliot!"

Warm skin Earthy warm soft touched cold sharp marble Wind and Eliot jerked straight up but he shouldn't be moving Nate said "don't move" and Eliot moved not listening to Nate wasn't something you did but Eliot did and now Parker clutched the edge of his soft mattress as he mumbled words that made her stomach hurt and she felt just a little bit sick too because the scorpions were back but Parker didn't like Chinese anymore.

Parker didn't know what to do "Eliot!" but his blue sky blue mustang blue wild eyes were wide and not looking at her not seeing Parker not seeing what was _real_ he had to stop gasping like he was drowning because Parker had drowned people before but Eliot wasn't breathing just turning his head every which way like he was looking for someone to fight but he was afraid to fight and Parker said "If you want him you're gonna have to fight _me"_ she told the ghosts in the room. "Eliot's mine and awake and it's Parker. I'm Parker they tried to take you through your night terror but I didn't let them because I steal from Death all the time and no one takes what's mine."

Blue eyes like the sky finally really saw her. "Parker?"

"Parker's me," she assured him trying to copy Sophie's soft quiet mother voice because he wasn't all the way back in her world and she wanted to fight off Fear steal his life and give him to Death but Eliot didn't need her to fight for him because he was their hitter and he hit things that Parker couldn't always see and now he pulled his knees halfway to his chest to rest his forehead against them to breath like the drowning man again but when he raised his head to look at her through his pretty long hair she could tell he was Eliot again so she wrapped herself around him and held him like she had seen a mom hold her son in a movie and stroked his hair and wondered if anyone had ever protected him before had they even tried to protect him like Parker tried but one look at his bare chest and the scars from being a Retrieval Specialist and ones too old and she knew that no one ever had and it made her fingers itch and her chest burn and maybe latching onto him was the only thing keeping Parker from running screaming off of Eliot's roof and finding _everyone_ _anyone_ who had ever hurt him and make them hurt too.

But instead she just kept stoking his hair and murmuring in his ear about the best way to break into the Antiquities wing of the Cairo Museum until they both drifted off to sleep just as the sun stained the sky with an orange glow.


	12. What Do We Know: Eliot

**What Do We Know? - Thousand Foot Krutch**

_It's a twist, a little bit, I'll admit,_  
_But we're stronger than before,  
Open up, we've had enough, we've had enough,  
Now we're holdin' on and waiting_

_What do we know?_  
_What do we know?_  
_What do we know?_  
_What do we know?_  
_What do we know?_  
_What do we know?_  
_I'll tell you what they're all sayin'_

_We all try to be somebody  
But the world around us makes it so cloudy  
When we don't trust where we're supposed to  
But the blood on their hands says we're not close to the answer yet_

What do we know about Eliot Spencer?

We know that he has long brown hair. We know that he has blue eyes. We know that he is six feet tall. We know that he weighs approximately two hundred pounds. We know that he has a scar on his lip. We know that he specializes in Retrieval, smash and grab, disguises, and special ops.

But what do we _know_ about Eliot?

We know that he is one of the best unarmed combatants in the world. We know that he has a seventh degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate and a fifth degree Black Belt in Aikido. We know that he can take out an entire gang alone, without breaking a sweat. We know that he is wanted in five countries, including Myanmar. We know that he can cook an omelet just as easily as he can bust a head.

But what do we _know_ about Eliot?

We know that he can speak fluent Hebrew. We know that "The pony express is never late, boss." We know that he is a terminal bachelor. We know that he obtained a Master Chef status from the Italia de la Cuisina in 1999. We know that he used to suffer from claustrophobia until he locked himself in a woodshed for two days. We know that Hardison may be a hacker, but... "That's what _I_ do."

But what do we _know_ about Eliot?

We know that he was a quarterback in high school. We know that he has a sister and a nephew. We know that there are no records of Eliot Spencer before 1998 and no United States records before 2000. We know that "I liberated Croatia." We know that he was "Engaged to be engaged." We know that he does not like _The Sound of Music_.

But what do we _know_ about Eliot?

We know that his favorite TV show is _Angel _and his favorite movies is _Casablanca_. We know that his favorite beer is Guinness Stout. We know that he only sleeps ninety minutes a day. We know that everything is very distinctive with Eliot. We know that he grows his own food and does not own a television.

But what do we _know_ about Eliot?

We know that "Yeah I'm a lurker. That's my thing." We know that "My insecure ass is gonna be wearing this shirt." We know that new glasses can affect his fighting. We know that he dabbles in chess. We know that he owns a gray Chevy Silverado pickup. We know that "I love apples." We know that he has dated a neurologist, a flight attendant, and a Japanese police woman and a lot of models with a lot of "private fashion shows."

But what do we _know_ about Eliot?

We know that he took Home Economics in high school, which is where he learned "Knives are like people; it's all about context." We know that he can sing and play the guitar. We know that he has a distaste for any substances that will take away his control. We know that "I learned long ago that you can't control the violence."

But what do we _know_ about Eliot?

We know that he fights like something is trying to get out of him and is someone you would want at your back – not at your front door.


	13. Let Me Go: Eliot

**Let Me Go – Christian Kane**

_Let me go  
You don't need me baby  
Stop holding on the way you are  
Don't you know I'm no good for you  
And it'll only break your heart  
If you don't_  
_Let me go_

_He said other than a dreamer_  
_I ain't nothing but a drifter_  
_You could do a lot better_  
_He leaned over and he kissed her_  
_He said you got another year of college_  
_And me I got 93 dollars_  
_And this old 82 Chevy_

_She said nice try_  
_But you can't hide behind those shades there on your face_  
_See I don't think you're all that tough_  
_I just think you're scared of love_  
_And I think I won't take up that much space_

_Let me go, take me with you baby_  
_It's so cold outside your arms_  
_And we both know_  
_That you're not as strong as you think you are_

He knew that he should leave. He wasn't good for someone like Parker. Hell, he wasn't good for _anyone._ He was a drifter when he wasn't being a Retrieval Specialist, and the longer he put it off, the longer he stayed with the team, with Parker, the harder it was going to be.

Besides, she didn't really need him. She was Parker; she didn't need anyone. All he would ever do for her would break her heart. Nate and Sophie and Hardison would take care of her. But now she's curled into his side with her head tucked under his chin, and he can't stop himself from cradling her in his arms and stroking her perfect alabaster skin.

"Parker?" he asked quietly, not wanting to wake her but knowing that if he waits any longer he'll find an excuse to put it off. "You awake sweetheart?"

He felt her intertwine their fingers and he thought his heart broke just a little bit more.

Eliot sat up, trying to get some physical distance between them before he tried to sever their emotional ties – get all of the re-breaking done fast and as painless as possible.

"Parker, darlin', I thing that it would be best if we... didn't see each other anymore. I'm – I'm no good for you. You deserve someone who isn't wanted in half a dozen countries for _killin_' people, who isn't goin' anywhere in his life except an early grave."

"This is my fault, isn't it?" Parker asked suddenly, in a tone that had Eliot's stomach in painful knots. "I'm too wrong too different. I told you when we started this that I'm _not normal_, Eliot! I try to be, really, really hard, but... this is who I am. I thought that you loved me because of that."

Surely there weren't tears in her eyes. It was just... a trick of the light, Eliot was certain. He had only seen Parker cry once before. Besides, their relationship was just about the sex – the wild, amazing, best sex that Eliot had ever had – wasn't it? They both lived in a world that didn't allow for emotional attatchment, and the Retrieval Specialist and the Worlds' Best Thief knew that better than anyone.

Didn't they?

This should be easy, because it was all about the sex, right?

So why was it so hard? Why was his throat closing up and all of the arguments about how incompatible they were and how their jobs didn't allow it and that it was just a fling anyways sound so stupid and superficial to him now?

"Sweetheart, however cliché it may sound, it's really not you; it's me. You don't need me, I'm a drifter through and through. You can do so much better than me – Hardison's a good kid, despite our differences. I think that you would be happy with him."

Parker was sitting cross-legged across from him with her brow furrowed, and she pushed her blonde hair out of her face impatiently. "No, Eliot. I love Hardison like I love Nate and Sophie – not like I love you. I love you differently than them and it makes me feel different – I _always_ want to be with you and when I'm not I'm thinking about you not money or jumping or _anything_ but how I want to _be with you_ and without you I don't feel like myself anymore I feel like I lost something important – more important than anything else that I've ever had. You're the last thing I think about before I go to dream – and when I come back you're the first thing I think about. I trust you more than I've ever trusted _anyone_ before and you make my heart race and take my breath away and I've decided that I love butterflies because whenever you're around I feel them inside me. I know that this is love, and no one can do it better than us because we're perfect for one another."

Eliot was sure that that was the longest speech he had ever heard Parker say. "Dammit... But, Parker, I just want to make sure that you're safe, and down the road I'll just break you're heart. It would be better if we ended this now, a clean break."

But Parker just smirked at him with that crazy-ass grin of hers. "Nice try. But I think that you're not all the tough bad ass you would like us to think you are. I think that you're just scared of love – and I'm not gonna let you go."

Eliot wasn't so sure that he wanted her to let him go. She was sitting there, looking so sexy in her little black tank top and a pair of his boxers, showing off her long legs.

She pouted suddenly, and crawled back across the bed into his arms, snuggling as close to him as possible without actually using him as a mattress, and rested her hand over his heart. "It's cold outside of your arms," she said, sighing as her body relaxed.

"We both know that not even you are that strong."


	14. Thief of Your Heart: Parker

**You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart – Sinead O'Connor**

_I hope you're happy now..  
I could never make you so...  
You were a hard man...  
No harder in this world  
You made me cold, you made me hard  
And you made me the  
Thief of your heart_

Parker was fascinated with heartbeats. Whenever she hugged someone – which was rare, but not as rare as it used to be because now she had Eliot and since Eliot didn't clutter up her silence with words and liked to touch instead now she was getting used to returning the touches – she would press her head to their chest and listen for the steady _thump_thump _thump_thump _thump_thump that told her they were alive and breathing and blood was still moving through them.

Nick didn't have a heartbeat. His heartbeat was gone and no heartbeat meant no more ice cream no more scary stories under a blanket at night no more fireworks no more swinging in the park no more riding bikes no more baby brother.

Her stepfather and her mother hadn't had heartbeats either but that didn't make her cry – that made her happy and she hugged Bunny and whispered to him _Don't worry now Bunny we'll be alight now that they can't hurt us anymore _so heartbeats were very important to Parker because a heartbeat could mean either that she didn't do it right or she did do it right – only a heartbeat could tell her the truth. They were her grading scale. If she was told to be in and out of a building with no casualties and she accidentally stopped four or five hearts that meant that she would have to work the lasers again but with no ice cream and that was no fun because there was no challenge and for every heartbeat she stopped – or didn't stop – it was another hour at the lasers.

She understood now that it was practice and practice makes perfect Parker was perfect now but Archie used to say _most people will practice until they get it right but we practice until we never get it wrong _and until the STERANCO Parker never had gotten it wrong.

But now that she was a "good guy" she was graded on how many heartbeats she didn't stop and it was her job to ensure that the hearts of her teammates didn't ever stop because that was the ultimate challenge for Parker to work with a team to keep them alive.

Well, she told herself, actually it was Eliot's job but quis custodiet ipsos custodes* to them who was Eliot to say that he didn't need any help because he did need help but not help with acting or chess or World of Warcraft he needed help with keeping his heart beating and that was something that Parker knew how to do because heartbeats were very important to her and even though she could see him walking around with barely a limp she still worried and Parker didn't like to worry because Archie said that worrying was for people who didn't know what they were doing but right now Parker really didn't know what she was doing because she was doing something she had never done before in her life – she was winging it.

Parker dropped down from the air vent into his kitchen and threw her arms around his broad shoulders with her hand over his heart to feel the strong pulse of his heart Eliot's heartbeat was one of the strongest she had ever felt before even when he wasn't in motion it was like it was trying to fight it's way out of his chest and Parker thought that it wanted to be with her too and she would steal Eliot's heart.

Even though she knew that his heart was strong and healthy Parker worried for him because she didn't have a plan for Eliot he was new to her and she didn't know what she was doing but she would fight to keep his heart strong fight for him until his heart stopped beating and maybe even then because this thing that they had together was both wonderful and terrible

but Parker loved every beat it lasted.

* * *

*Who will guard the guardians


	15. That's Not My Name: Team

**A/N: **Okay, this one is a little different from the others that I've done, seeing as it doesn't really have just one main character, but I guess that it could be considered a Hardison one-shot. There are mentions of Bonnano and others, so, like I said, if it stinks, chalk it up to my inexperience.

**

* * *

**

**That's Not My Name – The Ting Tings**

_They call me 'quiet'  
But I'm a riot  
Mary-Jo-Lisa  
Always the same  
That's not my name  
That's not my name  
That's not my name  
That's not my name_

No one knew just quite how it got started. No, that's not true. They knew exactly how it got started, and it was all Hardison's fault, not that anyone was really surprised. He was at his computer surfing the web when a pop-up advertisement for baby names caught his attention.

_Maggie, _it read,_ Origin: Celtic. Meaning: Pearl._

"Well... Yeah, I can see that," Hardison admitted, thinking of Nate's very attractive ex-wife, and moved his cursor to close the window, then stopped. He felt the curiosity that had often gotten him smacked by his Nana stirring in the back of his mind, and itch that he just _had_ to scratch. _I wonder..._

Againt his better judgment, he enlarged the screen and typed another name into the search engine, then waited a moment as it pulled up the results. "Parker," he read aloud, "English in origin, meaning keeper of the forest; forest ranger. Example: actor Parker Stevenson."

"What about Parker Stevenson?" said a voice in his ear.

Hardison screamed – _it was not a scream, it was a surprised... yeah, okay, I'll admit it was a scream – _and whipped around, holding one hand to his chest. "Good God woman," he huffed indignantly, "You almost gave me a heart attack."

"What are you doing with my name?" Parker insisted, trying to peak around him to view the screen.

"It's nothin'."

"Dammit Hardison!" Parker said in a tone so like Eliot's that Hardison actually swiveled around in his chair to see if the hitter had entered the room.

"Fine, fine, alright fine, I'll show you, just don't ever say that again," Hardison grouched, then continued mumbling under his breath about how, "No one appreciates my work – what happened the one time Hardison wasn't there? Oh, they had to crash land a jet on a highway. Nobody appreciates me. Nobody."

"I do," said Parker, raising her hand. "You make all those cool costumes and show me how to play video games."

"Whatever," Hardison said, but he bit his lip to hide a smile. "Anyway, the sight is called Meaning of Your Name, and what you do is you type your name into the search engine –" here he typed in Nathan - "And then it tells you where the name originated and what it means, in Nathan's case, gift of God."

"Cool!" Parker crooned, then pulled the couch closer and perched on the back. "What about you? What does your name mean?"

"It says: Alec, Greek for Protector of Men. Hah! I told Eliot that fightin' the injured was my nitch. Someone's gotta do it."

"What about Sophie and Tara?"

"Sophie, Soph, S...o...p...h...i...e... Aha! Sophie, the Greek diminutive of Sophia, meaning 'Wisdom.'" Alec thought for a moment. "Yeah, that does fit her, but so does Brittany, 'cause she's from Britain, get it?"

Parker just looked at him weird. "Okay then, moving on. Haha, look at this – Tara means 'Craggy hillside.' She's gonna be one craggy hillside in about twenty years!"

This time Parker did laugh, then asked, "Can you find 'Bunny' or 'Nick'?"

Hardison searched for a moment, then said, "Yeah, they've got both of those names here. Bunny is an American name meaning Little Rabbit, and Nick is Greek for Victorious People."

Parker smiled, and it wasn't her crazy why-haven't-I-stabbed-anyone-with-a-fork-yet grins, it was an honest-to-God real smile.

Hardison thought that she looked beautiful.

"What about Eliot?"

And that at least the last thing he saw on this earth would be a hot piece of sexiness.

"Yes, Hardison, what about Eliot?"

He was so dead, asthma or not.

"We're looking up your name on a baby sight," Parker explained happily, swinging her feet so they bounced off of the couch backing.

Hardison could have sworn he heard a sizzle and felt own neck snapping, but instead Eliot merely said, "Well go on then Hardison, I'm sure we're all dying to know."

"Uh, well, there's Eliot meaning 'The Lord is My God' in Hebrew and Spencer meaning 'Administrator.'" Hardison turned, almost too scared to look, just to see Eliot shrug.

"I can work with that. It is better than "Craggy hill," after all."

"Ooh, search for Jim Sterling," said Sophie, who Alec hadn't even seen enter the room, with Nate by her side. Now Hardison was even more sure that Sophie was wise - especially for changing _that_ apparently delicate subject.

Hardison took a deep breath and turned back to his computer. "Okay, Jim. It's Hebrew for 'From the Name of Jesus.'" Parker snorted with laughter and Sophie covered her mouth with a delicate hand to hide her laughter. Nate and Eliot didn't even try to control themselves. "And Sterling is German for 'Valuable.' Yeah, right, the only thing that man is 'valuable' for is taking all of the credit we deserve for all of our hard work."

There was a chorus of agreement.

"What about Patrick?" Nate asked. "Patrick Bonnano."

"Wow," Hardison said after a moment, "That's perfect. Patrick is Celtic for 'Noble man.'"

Nate nodded, a small smile on his face.

Eliot's arms were crossed over his chest, but one corner of his mouth was tugged up in a smile. "Thank God there are some honest cops who we can trust."

"I'm glad that he recovered from his injuries," Sophie said.

"He's one of the most honest people we know," said Parker, "But otherwise, he's okay."


	16. My Love: Parker

**A/N:** This is sort of a prequel to Let Me Go

* * *

**My Love – Sia **

_My love, leave yourself behind  
Beat inside me, leave you blind  
My heart, look what you can do  
I am mending, I'll be with you_

_You came thoughtfully, loved me faithfully_  
_You taught me honor, you did it for me_

_Now I am strong (Now I am strong)_  
_You gave me all_  
_You gave all you had and now I am whole_

Parker hadn't known that people were actually honorable until she met Eliot and then it started to shock her when people didn't act honorable because Eliot was perfect and didn't everyone want to be perfect? she thought that it was the American way to want to be perfect so shouldn't they act _honorable brave strong empathetic honest loving fearless ruthless _like Eliot did but they didn't and Parker was confused so she asked Sophie because Sophie's name meant 'wise' which meant that she was smart, Parker guessed, but Sophie knew _everything_ about people and how they should act so Parker asked her.

"Oh, sweetie," she had laughed, "Take off those rose-colored shades. Eliot's not perfect any more than Hardison or Nate. He's tough and fearless I'll give you that much, but loving? When have you ever seen Eliot 'loving'?"

Parker had frowned because apparently even for all of her wisdom Sophie couldn't see that Eliot was loving towards the team all the time he was punched and kicked for them made them cookies and pasta and even though he complained he listened to Alec's technobabble and played chess with Nate and even if watching one of Sophie's horror-movie plays was worse than Russian Roulette he was still at every one but if Sophie hadn't noticed these herself then Parker wasn't going to tell her because these were the things that Parker prided herself in knowing because she usually never noticed these things and Parker knew that if you knew something no one else did you shouldn't ever tell anyone.

Instead of sharing what she knew because she knew that you shouldn't do that Parker asked "Well then what are rose-colored shades and why do they make me think that Eliot is perfect?"

And Sophie said "Rose-colored shades is a metaphor for thinking that something is better than it actually is, and you probably feel that way because you're in love."

Parker fell backwards off of the couch "In love? I don't even know what love is I can't be in love love means that I'm attached and that's not good Archie said that you should never be attached because if you're attached to something then you endanger yourself and being a thief means looking out for only yourself."

But Sophie had just smiled gently and said "You aren't a thief anymore Parker, you're part of a team, and being part of a team means that you watch out for each other. Besides, look at Nate and I; we're both thieves and we still love each other, though getting us both to admit it at the same time is like pulling teeth."

"But how do you know I'm in love if I don't even know what love is?" Parker insisted "You can't be something if you don't know what it is it doesn't work that way."

"Love is giving you're heart to someone you want to spend every second with and when you're not you're thinking about him or how you want to be with him, but when you're not you feel like you've lost something important – more important than anything you could ever steal from a vault, Parker. He's the last thing you think about before you fall asleep and the first thing when you wake up." Here Sophie smiled wistfully and continued "You trust him more than you've ever trusted anyone before and whenever you're around him he makes you're heart race and your knees go weak.

"It's a joke that no one else gets, a compliment where none is deserved, just little things that say _I love you _in your own special language that no one else understands and sometimes you think you never will, but you love the mystery of figuring it all out."

Parker was silent for a moment trying to figure it all out it seemed to fit but she didn't understand not quite so she drifted out of the room with a half articulated excuse to Sophie about testing some new rigging but really she just wanted to find Eliot and try something.

When she did find him he was unsurprisingly in the kitchen so Parker came up behind him and said "Eliot I need you to kiss me" but Eliot just turned and stared at her so Parker jumped at him and mashed their lips together without thinking.

It sort of scared her how easy it was to mold herself to him and wrap her arms around his neck in a real kiss not like when she kissed Hardison or anything but his kiss made her want to take a match to her skin because she felt like she was about to explode but when his strong arm slid around her waist and his other had twisted itself in her hair it felt like her blood was about to boil like soup and her knees felt weak but she pressed herself closer to him and closed her eyes to the tortuously sweet taste of his lips.

Parker smiled at the memory of that first kiss from her position in the hospital air vent because something so perfect so wonderful so meant to be couldn't end not from torture not from Russians not from guns and Parker – Parker who could steal anything from anyone anyplace anytime – had stolen back her lover because she was strong Eliot had made her strong by giving her his strength and when he had nothing left to give she gave him everything she had and they helped each other.

Parker knew that all of these silly doctors and nurses and surgeons couldn't do anything for her lover because Parker had already given him all of herself and no one stole anything from Parker.

Parker knows that Eliot stole her heart long ago, but she's a gracious loser especially since every time she opens her eyes and feels Eliot's warmth by her side she feels like she's just won the game.


	17. I Never Told You: Nate

**I Never Told You – Colbie Caillat**

_But I never told you  
What I should have said  
But I never told you  
I just held it in_

_I see your blue eyes, every time I close mine_  
_You make it hard to see_  
_Where I belong to, when I'm not around you_  
_It's like I'm not with me_

_And now, I miss everything about you (still you're gone)_  
_I can't believe that I still want you (and loving you, I never should have walked away)_  
_After all the things we've been through_  
_I miss everything about you, without you_

Nate had tried to be a drunk honest man. He had tried to be a sober thief. Really, it was the only logical next step that he try being a drunk thief.

Besides, Sophie – or whatever the hell her name really was, she still hadn't told him – was back, and that meant he would be okay. Whenever he crossed a line that wasn't supposed to be crossed, he knew that he could always count on Sophie to slap him across the face or give him that brokenhearted tearful look that even totally plastered he couldn't mistake.

Nate wasn't a complete masochist and Sophie had a strong arm, but he had almost missed getting slapped.

Well, actually that wasn't quite true. He had missed being slapped by _Sophie_. He didn't miss her brokenhearted look, though. That hurt too much to see from Sophie. Even more than her slaps.

He had missed her seductive flirting, her grifting, her ability to just _get_ _it_ when no one else understood why he was such an asshole sometimes. Didn't mean she liked it, but she understood. Hell, he had just _missed_ her, everything about her.

And so yeah, okay, he did have some problems with communicating, but who didn't? Most people were either so bluntly honest that sometimes he wanted to punch them – like Parker, but you couldn't really blame her, Hardison, but half the time he used so many slang words and double negatives that you couldn't even understand him, and Eliot, who was as honest as he was, Nate suspected, because he knew that he could say whatever the hell he wanted and no one could do shit about it.

Sophie was honest in her own way; she would say some obscure little comment that got you thinking and by the time Nate had puzzled it out enough to be mad at her she was already gone.

For a while, having Tara there was a welcome distraction. Always watching her to make sure that she wouldn't betray his team – despite what they thought, he knew they were calling Sophie. It's not like he wasn't doing the exact same thing himself – or start freelancing like Parker and Eliot sometimes did. Tara didn't try to keep him from drinking and she didn't hover, but then he had started to miss that and then he had started to miss Sophie and even though it was one of the most difficult things he had ever done – asking someone for help – it didn't seem like such a leap from having to go one more day without having Sophie with him.

So he called and said he needed her. Because he did need her. The team needed her back, yes, but so did her. Needed her to tell him when he had gone too far, because he screwed up. Needed her to tell him who he was, because without Sophie there was no white knight or a black king – it was all in shades of gray.

And now, even with Sophie back with him, his compass, he still couldn't find the way to tell her that he loved her.


	18. She Is Love: Eliot

**She Is Love – Parachute **

_I've been beaten down, I've been kicked around  
But she takes it all for me.  
And I lost my faith, in my darkest days,  
But she makes me want to believe_

_They call her love, love, love, love, love  
They call her love, love, love, love, love  
She is love, and she is all I need  
_

_Well I had my ways, they were all in vain  
But she waited patiently.  
It was all the same, all my pride and shame,  
But she put me on my feet._

Before the team, Eliot could count on one hand the number of people he had ever truly loved. His mother, of course, and his sister, and Aimee. He had had flings, sure, but never love. He had never cared about anyone else enough to throw himself into the path of an oncoming bullet or scale a forty-store building, and until he met the team, he was okay with that. He still sent flowers to his mothers' grave on the anniversary of her death, and his sister received an extremely large check and a postcard of where his most recent job had been on her and her sons birthdays. In return, Charlotte sent handwritten letters to the one PO box that she knew every two weeks.

Eliot loved his sister, no mistake, but he was surprised that even after all these years she still signed her letters with _I can't wait to see you again, Eliot. I love you so much, fr__ère*, XOXOXO_. The letters always smelled like _Nina_ by Nina Ricci – the perfume she had been wearing since high school.

He looked forward to her letters.

With Aimee, though, it was a little different. He had been "engaged to be engaged," and it had been as easy as breathing to be with her again, but now he had Parker. He had a new family, and as much as he wished it could have been with Aimee, the larger part of him was more content with his team than he had ever been with anyone else.

Now there were four more people whom he cared for. Nate was like the father he had never had and Sophie was... Sophie was hard to define. She was sort of like his mother, but not because he'd never thought of his mother as hot. Hardison was defiantly the annoying little brother, no question, but that didn't mean Eliot wouldn't bale him out when one of his crazy schemes went wrong.

And Parker... Parker was undefinable. It may have started out innocent, but it certainty wasn't that way now.

Sweet mother of God that girl was flexible.

Yeah, he loved them all, his new family, but if he was being honest, he loved Parker the most. They didn't exactly have what most people saw as a 'normal' relationship – a date for them was stealing a priceless painting or teaching Parker how to take down someone three times her size (not that she needed any help, Eliot just liked the excuse to touch her, which tells you how those lessons usually end...) or Parker showing him how not to fall, break his legs, and be stuck in the "Long metal coffin with wind."

Whenever a job went wrong – which was more than not – and he had to step in and take a beating, Parker always knew. He didn't know how she knew because one thing that he had been good at even before he knew how to fight was not showing you were in pain. He might think that he had gotten away with not telling her and could just slink off to lick his own wounds, so to speak, but the second they were alone together she was pulling off his shirt and checking him for bruises in need of icing or cuts longer than the width of her little finger.

If he was being honest with himself, it was sort of nice to be looked after.

And when he started to wonder about the whole "White Knight" thing, Parker was there to take him to the Palermo's restaurant to watch Ray play with his daughter, or anyone of the people they helped. She would look at him pointedly and say, "We helped them when no one else would. It's what we do, because everyone deserves some leverage."

Parker had never been more right, in Eliot's mind, and even if she didn't know it, Parker and her love were the leverage keeping him on his feet.

* * *

*Brother


	19. Bleed: Eliot

**Bleed (I Must Be Dreaming) – Evanescence**

_How can I pretend that I don't see  
What you hide so carelessly?  
I saw her bleed  
You heard me breathe  
And I froze inside myself  
And turned away  
I must be dreaming_

It's not what it seems  
Not what you think  
No I must be dreaming  
It's only in my mind  
Not in real life  
No I must be dreaming

Help you know I've got to tell someone  
Tell them what I know you've done  
I fear you but spoken fears can come true

The first time Eliot saw Parker have a nightmare, he almost had a heart attack.

Parker had been testing a new rig when a carabiner*-like safety device snapped and she fell twenty feet and went through a skylight before smashing into the concrete. Ironically, hitting the skylight had probably saved her life, but she was rushed to the hospital with a broken wrist, a fractured hip, and dislocated shoulder.

They had given her morphine for the pain before reluctantly releasing her from the hospital, and Eliot had taken her back to his apartment, where he was reading and she was curled up next to him in bed, her cheek pressed to his chest so she could hear his heartbeat, when she sat up, got out of bed, and walked out of the bedroom. That in itself wasn't strange because it was Parker, and her sleep patterns were more whacked up than his.

But when he heard the sound of shattering glass, he leaped out of and rushed to the kitchen. "Parker! What are you doing?" he demanded, coming up behind her to touch her uninjured shoulder.

She didn't answer, and didn't turn to look at him, just started rambling, "Where are all the sleep sheep? Everyone's got a sleep sheep. My sleep sheep's not here. Oh. How am I meant to sleep without my sleep sheep? Sleep sheeeeeep... Wait, you've got two, you bastard! I'm taking that one. He's so soft. Ah, sleep sheep. Don't leave me again. Baaaaaaahhhh"

"Parker, what the hell are you talking about?" Eliot demanded, turning her to face him. Her eyes were dim and glazed over, and she was staring over his shoulder into nothing. "Parker? Parker, look at me," he said, snapping his fingers in front of her face. She just started talking again.

"Ninjas in stilettos. Fashion assassins! Not so stealthy, but oh so stylish. Back off Robin. Batman is my bitch now. You're just a bitch's bitch, bitch. Oh, let go of my hand. The pony, he's got my hand! Someone kill the fucking pony, he's got my hand! Oh! Fuck! Oh! Ow!"

"Parker," Eliot said, trying not to freak out. It was probably just a bad reaction to the morphine... "Parker, there's no one here but me. What were you doing in the kitchen?"

"The cake! It must be psychic. It's using Jedi mind tricks to make itself irresistible to me. This is the cake I want. I must have the soft icing. It's cake o'clock all day long."

"Parker – "

"Don't you give me those puppy eyes. Put 'em back. Puppy needs them. Stop running, puppies. I don't want a puppy tornado! Whizzing 'round, with all these legs flapping. Mess."

Eliot sighed, torn between amusement and the need to tear his hair out. He grabbed Parker's hand – being careful of her cast – and attempted to pull her back towards the bedroom. "C'mon sweetheart, let's get you back into bed before you hurt yourself."

"Where are we going? I want to know where you're taking me. It's all fun not knowing, but now I'm bored, so tell me where we are going! ... Ooh, I've never been there before! I hope it's good."

Eliot sighed. "Parker –"

Maybe it was something in his tone. Maybe it was the pain in her hip when she tried to walk. Whatever it was, Parker froze, and her glazed eyes widened fearfully. "No, please, please don't. I'm sorry, so sorry. I'll be a good girl, just – no!" She tried to jerk away, but flinched as her wrist pulled. "I'm sorry, stop, please!"

Eliot was scared again. "Parker, darlin', it's just me. It's Eliot. Parker, honey, it's just a dream, please wake up, you're safe, I promise." He cupped her cheek with his hand and was horrified to find that her face was damp with tears, and he brushed his thumb over her cheekbone. "Parker..."

She flinched and tried to swing at him, but he caught her fist with an open hand. Her breathing spiked, and Eliot was afraid that she might make herself pass out, if she was even conscious.

Not knowing what else to do, Eliot pulled her into his arms and rested his chin on the top of her head. "Wake up, darlin'. Come back to me. You're safe, I love you."

She whimpered once before she pulled away and her eyes focused on him for the first time. "Eliot?" she whispered, blinking in confusion. "Is he gone?"

Eliot breathed a sigh of relief and chose not to ask who he was. "Yeah, crazy girl, he's gone. No one can get to you when I'm here."

"I'm sorry," she mouthed.

"You got nothin' to apologize for, honey."

"No, no, I do. I should have been quieter or stronger – he shouldn't scare me, Eliot. Nothing's suppose to scare me." She looked down, her tousled blonde hair covering her face.

"Why?" Eliot asked, wrapping one arm gently around her waist and lifted her chin with the other. "You're human, aren't you? Everyone is afraid of something, even me. Why are you scared of him, Parker?"

She wouldn't meet his eyes as she spoke. "He hurt me bad, Eli. He hurt me so I killed him. But he wasn't the only one."

Eliot crushed her to him again – gently – and stroked her hair. "I'm sorry, darlin'. If I could, I would take it all away. If you hadn't already killed him, by tomorrow there would be a new obituary waiting for you. I can make it happen, if you want. I want to." He sighed, and pressed his face into her hair, breathing in her scent. "I want to tear their arms off and let them bleed to death. I've spent some time in Russia, and they know their stuff. Just say the word, honey."

Parker sniffled, and he felt her tears slide down his collar bone. "I – I do want them dead," she admitted, "But if they're going to die, we're going to kill them together."

"That's my girl," Eliot whispered, smiling. "Done."

*oblong metal rings with a spring-loaded hinge commonly used for rock climbing and rappelling


	20. Gravity: Parker

**Gravity – Sara Bareilles**

_You hold me without touch.  
You keep me without chains.  
I never wanted anything so much  
__Than to drown in your love and not feel your rain.  
_

_Set me free, leave me be  
__I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity.  
Here I am and I stand so tall  
__Just the way I'm supposed to be.  
But you're on to me and all over me__  
_

_You loved me 'cause I'm fragile_  
_When I thought that I was strong_  
_But you touch me for a little while  
And all my fragile strength is gone_

Before she met the team Parker had never cried in front of anyone not once not ever because crying was weakness and weakness meant that you couldn't defend yourself and if people thought that you couldn't defend yourself then they would –

It didn't matter but Parker didn't like to cry and she didn't like to look weak because she wasn't weak she hung from buildings by her fingertips for the sake's of tomatoes so of course she could take care of herself or that's what she told herself maybe she did need just a little help

_Of course you need help_ said a mean little voice in the back of her head _you couldn't even wake yourself up from a nightmare without Eliot's help. Face it, you're just his fragile little bitch _new Parker was speaking again but the old Parker was saying that it was nice to have someone to trust to watch they're back for them but Parker wasn't sure.

The one other time she had thought she loved someone trusted them enough to sleep actually sleep not sex because sex wasn't love but to close her eyes and dream with them she had woken up on the edge of her building ready to jump with firefighters on a ladder and a man with a megaphone trying to talk her away from the edge. After that he had ditched her saying that he couldn't handle someone with that much baggage no matter how much of a wildcat she was in bed so Parker didn't ever let anyone see her sleep and she didn't take drugs because when _she_ lost control when everything she had to work _so_ _hard_ to stop herself from doing had an open way out bad bad things happened – things that were even badder than when Eliot fell asleep.

And what she and Eliot had she thought might be love he cared for her and she was wearing her rose-colored glasses but she didn't think that anyone could ever love the real Parker who thought that Stiletto's were stylish because she secretly thought that they were very sexy she just couldn't walk in them but now that Eliot had seen and heard how she really thought who she really was it was only a matter of time before her baggage crushed him under it's weight like Atlas and the world and even as strong as Eliot was he couldn't hold the world her world _their_ world up by sheer will alone forever.

So she stands again at the edge of the twentieth floor of her apartment and for once thinks of jumping for a reason other than the rush of adrenaline wouldn't it just be so much easier, she thought, if it was all over now and I didn't have to wait any longer didn't have to wonder worry fear love hate think _breathe._

She surely didn't deserve Eliot because he was strong and brave and noble and protective and understanding and everything that she could ever want and even some things that she hadn't even known she wanted until Eliot gave them to her but now that she had them she didn't know how she could ever survive without them – they were late night swims and jokes no one else got and killing people together or stealing together and homemade pasta and crepes and waffles and cookies and all the little things that she had never had before that Eliot gave her of himself.

Parker had given Eliot little chips and pieces of her, too. She told him about Bunny, told him about her first lift, her first heist, her first jump and her first fall – all things that made her who she was pieces and chips that she was giving to Eliot and even now, facing the end of everything they had built as Eliot's Atlas strength to hold up the world would undoubtedly begin to fail she didn't want any of those pieces and chips back – they were Eliot's forever now and she wanted him to keep those pieces because she knew they would be safer with the hitter than they ever were with her so it was okay.

But then he was standing next to her smelling like cedar wood leather sage and his cool eyes like chips of bluegreen bottle glass don't judge her don't question don't accuse don't even _pity_ her and now she can't understand it so she goes to the only place where she feels like she has finally found her place and the universe is like a puzzle and in Eliot's arms everything just seems to click.

"Do you see all of those stars Parker?" He asked, pointing to the sky. She nodded and fisted the fabric of his t-shirt in her hands. "They're like diamonds in the sky. The most beautiful diamonds in the world."

"More beautiful than the Hope Diamond?" Parker asked as she looked up at the sky, sounding awed.

Eliot kissed the top of her head. "Yeah, a thousand times more beautiful. I used to love looking up at the stars for hours, but now, I've found new diamonds in you're eyes, Parker. You mean everything to me, no matter how many sleep sheep you need."


	21. Because of You: Parker

Okay, wow. Sorry. I feel kind of embarrased that it's been so long since my last update, so I'll try to get some more chapters out today.

If this little drabble isn't up to par with my normal writing, I can just say that my skills are a bit rusty.

**A/N**: Someone asked where I learned the info about Parker and Eliot for their _What Do We Know _chapters. To answer that, Leverage Wiki is a wonderful source of information, and anything that couldn't be found there or on Wikipedia I probably just made up.

**A/N2**: Sorry for taking so long on this one, but someone asked where I found Parker's sleep talking. Answer: Sleep Talkin' Man Adam on .com

**

* * *

**

**Because of You – Kelly Clarkson **

_I watched you die, I heard you cry,  
__Every night in your sleep_  
_I was so young, you should have known  
__Better than to lean on me_

_And now I cry_  
_In the middle of the night_  
_For the same damn thing_

_Because of you_  
_I tried my hardest just to forget everything_  
_Because of you_  
_I don't know how to let anyone else in_

_Because of you_  
_I'm ashamed of my life because it's empty_  
_Because of you_  
_I am afraid _

Parker clutched a handful of Eliot's second-favorite blue shirt and pressed it against her face to smell him to smell his warm cinnamon fire smell – it was her favorite smell and she loved to smell it even more than she like to smell money which was a lot. Parker broke into bank vaults all the time just to smell the money because she loved it so much (Nate said she wasn't supposed to steal the money anymore eve n though she really really wanted to _You're the good guys now, remember? You help people. _He'd say and then she would feel guilty so now she just smells the money and sometimes left little notes to say, _hi, this is Parker. The 80's told me to tell you that they wanted their security system back_ ;))

But she like how Eliot smelled even more so she slept in his bed and smelled his shirts and used his shampoo because until he got back -

"Parker, sweetheart," Sophie said, knocking on the door, "You can't stay in there forever, love. I know you miss him, we all do, and I know that this is hard for you but we really need your help on this job –"

Parker felt afraid for a minute because what if she stepped out to help the team with this one job and even if she was really really quick about it she still missed Eliot coming home and what if he thought that she had left him or run off with Hardison or something - she didn't like to think about that. She didn't like to think about how angry he might be. So no, she would stay right here until he got back home and kissed her and called her darlin' and said he was sorry for taking so long.

"He isn't gone," Parker told Sophie. She felt bad that Sophie was so worried about Eliot when really he had just stepped out for a minute to get her some more milk from the grocery store. He would be back soon and she told Sophie that because Parker didn't like it when Sophie worried because then Nate got angry and yelled at Hardison and that made Hardison sad so Parker tried to keep Sophie from worrying. "He'll be back soon, Sophie. You don't have to worry." Then, quieter, she whispered into his shirt, "He always comes back for me."

"Parker," Sophie said, but now she sounded defeated. "Parker it's been three months. You were at the funeral – "

but if Sophie was going to lie to Parker then Parker wasn't going to listen to her because Parker knew Eliot better than anyone and if Eliot told Parker that he would be back in a minute he would be because Eliot didn't lie; Sophie was the liar it was her job.

So Parker threw the blue shirt into the hamper and grabbed his red one out of the drawer.

She hoped that Eliot made it back soon; the laundry needed to be done, and this was his last clean shirt.


End file.
